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It’s no secret that lending growth drives the credit union industry. With that in mind, it is important to zoom out and look at the bigger lending picture from time to time. When you do, you will discover that some forms of lending are not promoted as regularly as others. As a result, your members could be missing out on lending opportunities. Let’s take a closer look at one form that often gets overlooked. Your credit union should focus on share secured lending for two main reasons.

Two Member Benefits for Share Secured Lending

1. Share secured lending helps members. That’s right, this is a great way to help members who may not be able to qualify for traditional forms of lending. It’s a nice way to give them a fresh start. Your credit union is able to secure the loan with the members’ savings accounts. It’s a surety of payment for your credit union. Yet, the member sees the loan as an encouraging step of good faith. Share secured lending promotes trust and loyalty between the credit union and the member.

2. It is a great stepping stone. Usually, once a member pays off their share secured loan, they qualify for unsecured loan products. These may be the same types of financial products they just paid off, only this time they are able to get a better rate or better terms due to their improved credit history. This is a great confidence boost for members. A boost that would most likely not happen without offering a share secured loan.

Offer Share Secured Lending

Share secured lending can be either offered in installment loans or lines of credit, which are ideal for those members who are perhaps unable to obtain unsecured credit. After a share secured loan is paid off successfully, the next step can very often be to apply for those same products your credit union offer, but unsecured :-).

Of course, all of this translates back to more lending growth for your credit union. That growth is good for other things too, like member retention and new membership. Loyal members who formerly held share secured loans will love spreading the word, trumpeting to friends and family about how their credit union is the best place to get a clean financial start.

Our consumer lending package will help you deliver those loans with ease. Oak Tree has everything your credit union will need to offer your members a superior lending experience. As always, all of our forms are up to date with all state and federal regulations. As well, all of our forms will easily integrate with your data processor. If you haven’t taken a hard look at share secured lending before, after the holiday season is the perfect time to do so. Chat with us for consumer lending or home equity lending packages at www.OakTreeBiz.com.

Learn what it takes to be a Customer Service Representative with our Consumer Lending Group. Hear from one of our Customer Service Supervisors about the Customer Service Representative day to day responsibilities, and the qualities and skills successful candidates should have. In addition, you’ll learn about the training program for this role and about career development opportunities.Video Rating: / 5

Ever since the fantastic depression, lots of people are finding it difficult to borrow funds for mortgages, vehicles and bank cards as banking institutions tightened their particular lending criteria. But things have actually enhanced within the last couple of years and Craig Zuidema, Vice President of Consumer Lending at BayPort Credit Union gave united states some insight into exactly what lenders try to find.Video Rating: / 5

A significant market segment is emerging as a result of the financial crisis. According to a recent survey conducted by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, 22 percent of Americans with bank accounts experienced a serious negative credit situation during the last two years, and 11 percent were first-time defaulters — consumers who had never fallen into delinquency before.
The latest episode of Deloitte Insights features a conversation among moderator Sean O’Grady, Andrew Freeman, executive director, Deloitte Center of Financial Services, and Deron Weston, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Tune in to learn more about the survey and the opportunity this new consumer segment represents for banks that can help them with their credit needs.Video Rating: / 5

Most people have seen or heard commercials that advertise websites to check your credit report. What most people don’t know is that your credit report does not include your credit score. Your credit report is more of a snapshot of your credit history that includes personal information, what kinds of credit you use (mortgages, credit cards, loans, etc…), how long you’ve had credit accounts, whether you pay your bills in a timely manner, if you’ve had collections put out on lines of credit, banking information, and so forth. It’s fairly easy to get a copy of your credit report. By law, the government grants every individual the right to a free annual credit report check, which you can get at AnnualCreditReport.com. However, there is still no absolutely free way to check your credit score.

So then, how do you check your credit score? Although none of them are free, there are several ways you can check your credit score. The first way is to purchase your credit score at AnnualCreditReport.com when you order your credit report. You can also purchase your credit score from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies; Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Although there is still some deliberation on how much these credit scores actually cost to order, most can agree they are in the range of $ 8 – $ 16. You can also check your credit score by purchasing it directly from FICO, the Fair Isaac Corporation- they pretty much invented the model for credit scores and are considered the standard. Their score is usually based on a combination of data from both Equifax and TransUnion. There are other sites that you can order your credit score from, but they usually offer a free credit score in exchange for purchasing a service from them like credit monitoring.

Moving forward, now that you were able to check your credit score, what does it mean? First off, each individual actually has three credit scores at any given time because Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion all have separate databases that collect reports from different creditors, and receive the information at different times. But what do these scores mean? Your credit score is primarily used in credit decisions made by banks and other lenders of credit. The better your score, the less likely you are to seem “risky” to these lenders, and the more likely you are to be approved for lines of credit like home loans or auto loans.

Credit scores can range from 300 to 850, and the higher the number, the better. According to FICO, the median credit score is 723, which happens to be considered excellent credit. With ratings of 720 and above, you will likely get offers for the best interest rates from lenders. Once you dip below average, interest rates tend to go up from lenders. A credit score below 620 puts you in a category called “sub-prime.” In this range you can expect to pay much higher interest rates than a consumer with a 720 credit score. However, there are more and more lenders offering sub-prime loans, you’re just going to pay higher interest because of your considered “risk” as a borrower.

Knowing your credit score is a very important tool in understanding how you are viewed to lenders and financial institutions. Depending on your score you can expect to be approved for loans with a prime rate, or possibly be denied lines of credit altogether. So take the time and check your credit score. In either case, it always helps to know where you stand.